August 2, 2011 – The Death of the Bond Vigilantes

August 2, 2011 By Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Featured Trades: (THE DEATH OF THE BOND VIGILANTES)

2) The Death of the Bond Vigilantes. Back in the seventies and eighties, when inflation was soaring well into double digits, the markets were regularly punished by a band of gun slinging traders known as the 'bond vigilantes.' Hard asset prices were running amuck, and there was a laser like focus on the growth of the money supply.

We have just witnessed the largest expansion of the monetary base in history. The Federal Reserve's balance sheet has ballooned from $800 million to an incredible $2.8 trillion in a mere three years. Gold is trading at an all-time high, and a whole range of commodities, including, the metals, corn, sugar, and oil, are posting foreboding year on year gains. The hard asset crowd is baying for Ben Bernanke's head. So where are the bond vigilantes?

The answer is that they were all rounded up and lynched by Paul Volker decades ago. As much as commodity prices rise, the Consumer Price Index remains dead in the water at a 3.6% annual rate reported in June, a shadow of the 14% we saw 30 years ago. And no, it is not a government conspiracy that is keeping the reported inflation rate so low.

The problem is, quite simply, your salary. For every $2 dollars' worth of commodity price inflation we are seeing, there are $3 worth of wages declines. Talk to any businessman, and he will tell you that wages account for at least 50% of his total costs, while commodity cost inputs are only 10%-15%.

Commodity prices can be roaring, but as long has globalization drives down wages at home, as it has for the last 30 years, their overall impact will be modest, at best. So add it all together, and you get an inflation rate that is stagnant at low single digits. You are obviously not working hard enough.

I am interested in all this because I have a dog in this fight. I happen to be long the (TBT), a leveraged ETF that bets that the Treasury bond interest rates will rise and prices will fall. I used to think that a resurgence of inflation would take it from the current $31 to $200. I don't think that anymore. I believe we will instead see a rise only to $43, which equates to a ten year Treasury bond yield of 4.10%, up from Friday's 2.75%.

That is still a potential gain of nearly 40%, which is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick in this zero return world. And that middling profit will not be delivered by a reincarnation of the inflation beast, but by the sheer volume of issuance of bonds demanded by our enormous budget deficits.

-

-

The Bond Vigilantes: Gone But Not Forgotten

Ready for Stellar Results this Year? Get Free Trade Alerts. Click on the Table Above.

Share the Mad Hedge Fund Trader with your Friends

Research Newsletters by Time

Search our Newsletter Database

MHFT Policies

Resources

Disclaimer

It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these pages will be profitable or that they will not result in losses. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Examples presented on these pages are for educational purposes only. These set-ups are not solicitations of any order to buy or sell. The authors, the publisher, and all affiliates assume no responsibility for your trading results. There is a high degree of risk in trading.